Rankin Hunger Magazine

Managed to find a use but near perfect copy of Hunger Magazine Summer 2012, Rankin's awesome and amazing bi-annual magazine.  So much to love in this magazine, what a talent Rankin is. Mark at PT4U has set Rankin as the photographic icon to inspire our next homework shoot so I am finding as many Rankin fashion images as I can for inspiration.

Green Screen with Perfect Mask 5 Webinar

Last night after returning from London I joined the Masking and Selection PT4U/OnOne Software webinar.  It was awesome, so helpful for replacing backgrounds.  One of our apprentice challenges is a green screen project so it was particularly useful for this ongoing project.  To all you PT4U members I would definitely recommend watching the video when it goes live.

Please like my Facebook page

Hi all,

I would really appreciate if you would like my Facebook page and spread the word to anyone you know who may be interested.

Thanks in advance.

D x

Visit Two - On location

Had a fab visit this week with the PT4U team in Stockport.

Day 1

We were based at Hallam Mill Photographic Studio, a fabulous daylight studio with so much space and  a wonderful range of eclectic props.  We started the day going through our homework which was videoed by the team.  Then Duncan Cooper from Calumet demonstrated the brand new Leaf Credo 60  Back on the Mamiya Medium Format Camera.  The camera is amazing and surprisingly simple to use.  I was blown away by the fast shutter speed with lighting, ordinarily I can set my Canon to a maximum of 250th of a second before the rear curtain banding is noticeable within the image.  As the Mamiya is a leaf shutter it does not have this problem at all.  I shot a couple of images at 200th of a second with a window behind the model then Mark suggested I increase it to 800th of a second and WOW the sky really popped, amazing!!  I can see that the medium format would be perfect for my dance work and the fashion and beauty work I take for the colleges and universities.  I am officially in LOVE!!

After the demonstration we began shooting with the beautiful Portia, she has an amazing look and is super talented with her makeup and styling too.  She was really easy to work with as she moves and poses so well.  We concentrated on natural light which in a sense was great as we had identified it during the first visit as a weak point for me in particular.  My commissions for my business are based on flash photography so I have done very little with natural light other than a few seminars with Kevin Wilson.  I found this particularly difficult and restrictive as I have not fully grasped natural light and reflectors as yet.

Towards the end of the day we went outside the mill to take some daylight and flash images.  Mark showed us a neat trick with the camera setting it to 320th second and turning the camera upside down to create a natural vignette which should be featured on one of the films, the images he showed us on the back of the camera were awesome!

Day 2

Mark let us know the previous day that we would be shooting four vintage period dresses and the outcome of the shoot would potentially be featured in Photo Professional Magazine. We were introduced to the beautiful and serene model Cassie Jade McDowell, she is fabulous to work with as she looks so innocent with a real english rose quality but is a self confessed rule breaker.  I started the first shoot with Cassie in a beautiful black lace vintage dress.  The shoot took place in a cluttered corridor, I really struggled with the natural light and the limitations of the location and got a severe roasting from Mark as I was pretty hopeless.  I took onboard all the comments that he had made and tried much harder when shooting the next dresses. By the time we got to the last dress we were at out time limit so I had to rush the shoot.  Next time it may be better to work out the time divide it between us and allow changeover time etc.  This is how I have to work with the college students and it works really effectively so we don't run over time.

Having reviewed the images I took they are pretty bad, I am certainly not proud of any of the images but I do have the capacity to learn and I do have a plan.  We are in the process of purchasing a beautiful old but tired mill, so before we start sand blasting and partitioning I am going to work on natural lighting techniques until I master it.

Mark set Rankin as the iconic photographer for our homework which I am really excited about, Rankin is awesome and his work is stunning.

I am grateful to the PT4U team for this amazing opportunity and although I currently feel out of my depth with the natural light photography it will certainly be a great skill to have when I do eventually master it.

Exciting News - Vogue Italia Approval

I finally got round to submitting some images to Vogue Italia now that the colleges and schools have finished for the holidays and I have a bit of time to catch up on admin.

To my delight I have had a couple of images approved, yeah!!!

The first image was taken on one of the level 3 makeup artistry courses on location at the Pitcher and Piano in Nottingham.  I love the period makeup and the gripped hairstyle it is absolutely awesome, and what an amazing model. Full model and makeup artist credits to be updated as soon as I confirm the author's work with the college, it is a very large class and a very long 14 hour session so I don't want to credit the wrong makeup artist by mistake.

The second image was taken on another level 3 makeup artistry course on location at a vintage bus depot in Nottingham.  The makeup artist was the wonderfully talented Natalie Stevenson, it was such a pleasure to photograph her session, she had a fabulous story for the session.  We were lucky to stumble across the dusty old car in one of the rooms at the depot, they kindly let us photograph using the vehicle as a prop. I will post more of the images from this session once I have submitted my associate panel in August, I have been advised by my amazing mentor Desi Fontaine to keep them under wraps until then.

Secret Assignment for PT4U Fashion Apprentice Training

Keep looking at the blog over the next few weeks as the secret assignment will be announced shortly.  It has certainly tested my photoshop and editing skills but it is a really exciting project! Here is a clue hint of what is to come with the truly amazing model and self stylist Ryo Love.

Muse Shoot - Gold Session One

I had organised a shoot with Rhona MacDonald, also known as Captin Ron (yes, that is Captin not Captain).  She is an amazingly versatile model, she is heavily involved in role play and acting so any shoot we organise she really gets into the role and brings so much to the shoot.  We had been taking for sometime about doing a gold makeup shoot, Ron had originally sent me an image as inspiration which I had kept in my inspiration folder. We worked from the initial idea and together came up with two distinct looks.   The marvellous Amy Biddulph kindly agreed to do the makeup for the day, she specialises in sfx makeup and was really keen to collaborate, again she was one of the students that has recently qualified on the level 3 beauty course at one of the colleges that I photograph, she is awesome!

Here is a montage of my favourite images from the session:

Moving forward, it would be great to develop this idea further using different makeup effects and more of a variety of lighting techniques, I have started putting together a mood board showing lighting, makeup ideas, jewellery styles, nail art etc.

Lara Jade Inspired Shoot

Mark and the team at PT4U set Tom and I the task of shooting in the style of Lara Jade.  I really wanted to try to attempt some outdoor shots using natural light but the rubbish weather we have had so far this summer has made it difficult to take the shots outdoor, the project will still go ahead later in the year as we have a sensational team of designers, hairstylists, models, makeup artists all keen to collaborate, we just need the weather now!

I decided to use one of my shoots for clothing designer Callecia Brown with the gorgeous amazing model Jameela Elfaki of Industry People as the Lara Jade inspired shoot, the designer was happy for me to experiment with lighting so towards the end of the session I tried a few different lighting styles which can be seen below.  The super talented Sarah Feist provided her awesome makeup skills for the session, she is a recently qualified makeup artists from one of the courses I photograph, big thank you Sarah for the superb makeup.

I shot the session with the intention of converting the images to black and white in post production but I prefer the images in colour as they really show the clothing off well.

Self Portrait

Mark and the team at PT4U set Tom and I the task of taking a self portrait for to bring along to each visit.  I am not at all keen on having photos taken, I am MUCH happier behind the camera but the task has been set so I couldn't really refuse as much I wanted too.

I wanted the self portrait images to say something about me and show an element of my character and my passions in life.

The first self portrait was makeup and vintage inspired, I work for a number of makeup colleges and absolutely love the work, it gives me such a buzz, the students have amazing ideas and produce beautiful work.  I asked Josie Clarke one of the lecturers to come and do my makeup for the session, she is very experienced in airbrushing and made an amazing job of the makeup.  Josie stayed for the session and helped with styling and pose direction, big thank you to Josie for all her help.

The second self portrait I wanted to show my love for dance and movement, I am not the greatest dancer but I LOVE to watch and photograph dancers, it is one of my greatest passions in photography. I used a light floaty material to portray the fluid and graceful movement of dancers. This was by far the most difficult shoot I have encountered so far,  I hadn't fully appreciated how difficult self portraits are to take and even more so with other variables such as moving fabric.  The majority of the images were unusable, fabric in mid air all clumped together, ridiculous facial expressions as I concentrated too hard on the fabric, rubbish posing etc. It was certainly a challenge but I have learnt a lot from it.